Animorphs: The New Girl
by Secretly Laughing
Summary: A new girl finds the Animorphs.SHe shares their powers, she shares their mission. Can she share the Animorph name?
1. Chapter 1

I perched in a tree, looking down idly at the six teenagers who were gathered underneath me. Two girl and four boys, I observed. Suddenly, one boy announced, "Guys, we have to try out some new morphs."

I perked up. Now, here was something I knew about. Shaking out my feathers, I took off and swooped down in front of them. They ignored me. I peered at one, a disturbingly pretty boy withan infectious smile. Therewas something strange about him...

Another boy shot the first one a look and said with a frown, "Marco, hush. WHo knows who might be listening? For all we know, that little sparrow there might be a spy."

Marco scoffed. "It's harmless, Jake. Who would be stupid enough to morph something so obvious?"

I had had enough. I demorphed and said flatly, "I would."

Jake stiffened. "Who are you?"

I smiled at him and held out my hand. "Anna. Pleased to meet you. The Yeerks have no idea that I exist."

Marco was still speechless, but a blond girl smiled at me and said cautiously, "I'm Rachel." She gestured toward the small, pretty African American girl beside her. "This is Cassie."

A boy piped up, "I am Ax." He pointed to a handsome blond boy and said conversationally, "This is Tobias, Ob-Ias. Bi-as."

I nodded to them and smirked at Marco. He was short, but taller than me, I observed with distaste. "Do you have anything to say for yourself, Marco?" I asked.

"So-rry!" he snapped.

"Asno," I muttered under my breath. "Burro. Idiota. Estupido."

He yelped in annoyance and shot to his feet. Jake clasped his forearm on one side and Tobias grabbed his other side. He struggled for a moment, but then he calmed down.

Jake turned to me. "Anna," he said slowly, deliberately, "We trust you. but mark my words, girl, if you do anything to break that trust, I'll kill you."

I met his gaze and said simply, "Yes."

Cassie slipped up behind Jake and asked softly, "Are there any others?"

I looked down and shook my head. "There were two others. One's dead and the other one became a _nothlit_."

Cassie stepped over and hugged me briefly. Tobias arched his back and stretched. "My time's almost up, guys."

I looked at him. "Are you a..."

Tobias smiled at me. "Yeah. I'm trapped. I can still morph, though," he added hastily, seeing my expression.

Ax said suddenly, "I think we should all adopt our regular forms."

Jake looked around and said reluctantly, "I guess you have to. Go ahead."

Tobias began changing into a sleek, beautiful bird. I watched in admiration for a moment, but then I glanced at Ax. I started. There, before me, stood an Andalite.

I gasped. "An Andalite!"

He looked at me and asked softly in thought-speak, Yes?

"Amazing!"

Jake looked troubled. "Haven't you ever seen one before?"

I nodded, gazing at Ax. "I lived among them for a while. It's just so spectacular."

Ax patted my head full of long black curls. Fascinating. The curves in this substance--

"Ax!" Cassie chuckled. "That's her hair."

I smiled. "Well, it certainly isn't a wig."

Ax looked closely at me. Can we take her to my home to explain more, Prince Jake?

Jake sighed. "Yes, you may."


	2. Chapter 2

I looked at the team in surprised delight. "This is nice."

Ax nodded and proudly flipped on a television. To my astonishment, a sappy soap opera was playing. The main characters were being...indecent. I flushed and glanced at the others. Everyone but Tobias was pointedly studying something else.

He likes it, and anyway, TV is a good way to keep him busy. For a super-advanced alien from a splendidly modern civilization, he acts suspiciously like a kid, he told me in private thoughtspeak.

I looked at the screen skeptically. "Watching rated R soaps count as acting like a kid?"

Marco whirled and grinned at me then. He said with a little laugh, "No, to act like a kid, you have to eat tin cans."

I tried to ignore the butterflies in my stomach and snapped at him ,"Ha-ha, _very_ funny."

He shrugged. "Hey, I thought so."

Tobias fixed his black eyes on me. YOu have a crush on him.

I gasped. "No, I don't!"

Tobias swooped over and settled on the floor, and then morphed into human. "Yes, you do!"

Marco looked down at me and then up at Tobias. "What _are_ you talking about? Toby?"

Toby smirked at me evilly. "Should I tell him?"

"If you dare, Tobias, I'll never--"

Jake whirled and pinned me to the wall. "You'll never what?" he asked, his voice low and smooth.

I tried to squirm free, but he was nine inches taller than me and a lot stronger. Cassie came over and whispered something to Jake. He relaxed and nodded. With a little smile, he leaned close and murmured in my ear, "If you break Marco's heart, I'll never forgive you, girl."

He let me go and tugged the other two girls outside. Tobias stood up from his position on the ground, and stepped toward the door. I grabbed his hand and whispered fiercely, "If you leave me here with him, I'll never speak to you again."

Tobias smiled down at me. I suddenly realized that this looked like something it wasn't. I stepped back hastily. His smile widened and he said placidly, "Well then don't speak to me." He looked overmy shoulder at Marco, and then he refocused his attention on me. "I take it you didn't like the previous stance you took?"

Then he stepped out and left me alone with Marco. Marco stepped toward me cautiously. As he opened his mouth to speak, Ax asked abruptly, Why do you humans enjoy kissing so much?

I turned away from Marco and walked over to Ax. "Morph into a human," I ordered him. Ax obeyed. As he did, I flicked off the television. At last, Ax stood before me on two human legs. I sauntered over and clasped his face in my hands. "Hold still," I said softly. As I did, my eyes locked with Marco's. He took a step forward, but then he tensed and stopped himself. I raised myself on tiptoe and even as my lips touched Ax's, I was still holding Marco's gaze. Suddenly, he turned and stormed away after the others. I broke the kiss and smiled at Ax vaguely.

Ax paused and looked at me. "I did not like the kiss. K-iss. Iss. Marco would have liked it better. Bet-ter. Et-ter."

I pursed my lips. "But he doesn't care about me. He doesn't know me. I know him even less than he knows me."

Ax sighed and walked outside. I followed after him and almost immediately crashed into Marco. He caught me against his chest and stiffened. I looked up at his face. His expression was almost...betrayed. I silently berated myself for feeling so right in his arms. Suddenly, I realized that we'd been standing like that for several minutes. Slowly, I stepped back.


	3. Chapter 3

Marco

* * *

Anna was beautiful, I realized. And vulnerable. A moment ago, when she was leaning against me, she looked so scared, so sad, so hopeless. I reached out to touch her cheek. I shouldn't have been listening outside the window a when Ax told her he didn't like her kiss. Anna shouldn't be so fragile, I thought, frowning. She reached up and put her hand over mine, and then eased it down and her fingers around it. I leaned forward to kiss her, but before I did, Jake came crashing into the small clearing. Anna jumped, and we both turned to look at him.

Jake smirked, seeing that I was just a couple inches away from Anna. Anna flushed, and I had the sneaking suspicion I did too. Cassie and Rachel came more quietly into the little glen then, and they smiled in amusement. I let her go, and she stepped away, moving faster than most girls would if hey were leaving me.

Tobias swooped in and morphed into a human. "Kandrona pool!" he exploded. "They're moving a bl--"

"Don't swear," interrupted Jake. "Where is it?"

"The new private school that's being set up. They have spies there."

Jake frowned. "The Christian school?"

He nodded. "Yeah. Mount of Olives CHristian Academy."

Anna gasped. "I'm going to to go to that school, starting Monday."

"The hell, you are!" exploded Jake.

"I haven't any choice!" she snapped.

"Guys--" I tried to break into their fight.

"Shut up!" they shouted in unison.

Jake stepped forward and said in a low voice, "Are you so loyal to the Yeerks that you can't bear to miss reporting to them?"

She snapped then. I could see the rage building up in her. SHe drew back her fist and punched Jake. Hard. He fell onto his rear end and clutched his bleeding nose.

Anna glared down at him for a moment, and then whirled and ran away fast. I knelt beside Jake and pried his fingers off his face. A big purple bruise was forming, and blood was streaming down his face. He pinched the bridge of his nose and tilted his head back.

"So?" I asked.

Cassie shot me a look, but he flopped onto his back. "SHe hits _hard._ I didn't expect that. I did deserve that."

"She was mad as a wet hen, to put it nicely," giggled Rachel. "She was angry enough to bring down an army in human form."

Jake smiled at his cousin. "I wasn't exactly pleased either, Rache."

Cassie said tentatively, "You overreacted, Jake, and that little comment you made about the Yeerks was really low."

He became serious suddenly. "I know," he groaned. "I don't usually get mad at stuff like that. Of course," he added, smirking at me. "I'm not usually talking to my best friend's--"

I gave him a withering look. "Be quiet. I'm going to find her. You're going to apologize." With that, I stomped off in the direction Anna had gone.


	4. Chapter 4

I hurried after Anna, praying that she wouldn't make this a long, drawn out procedure. It wasn't. I found her sitting on a log, waiting.

"Sorry about that," I offered.

"Not your fault," she said quietly.

"Where'd you learn to hit like that?" I demanded. "When did you live with the Andalites? Who the hell are you?"

She wasn't terribly bothered. "I can't answer the first question, but I lived with the Andalites in a disguise from the time I was two until a year ago, when I was fifteen. And I'm Anna." She was silent for a long time and then told me very, very softly, "The Yeerks know that _I _exist, but they don't know me under this name, with this identity. I've been fighting them for the last ten years."

"You were six?"

"I was six, my brothers were ten and fourteen. My other brother, he took a vow of noninterference. He's thirty."

"Noninterference," I repeated. "Sounds like the Ellimist."

Her head snapped up and her eyes widened. "Marco?"

"What?"

"Never mind."

I decided to change the subject. "So who do the Yeerks know you as?"

She smiled faintly and reached up to place her hands against my cheek. I could feel her leaning against me, the sweet scent of her shampoo tickling my nose. "There are many things you don't know about me, Marco, and many more I hope that you never know."


	5. Chapter 5

I slipped into Ax's scoop and waved at him. "Hey, Aximili."

Ax gave me the Andalite version of a smile, his eyes crinkling up at the corners. -Hello, True One.-

I winced. "Don't tell the others who I am before the mission this evening. After tonight, I promise I'll tell them."

He morphed human. "Good. Go-od. Ood."

()()()()

I watched as Visser Three clamped his human hands more securely around the trigger of the gun that just barely touched Ax's skull and ordered, "Demorph, all of you."

I glanced around. A skunk, a two wolves, a tiger, and a bear surrounded the Visser. Me, a tiger, like Jake. -Don't. Just me. My identity can be compromised, yours can't.- I ordered quickly in a private thoughtspeak. I turned expectantly to Jake.

Jake gave me a quick, searching, look, but at last said reluctantly, -Obey her.-

I nodded my head and began to demorph. BUt I didn't demorph in the pretty, small, Hispanic girl of before. I went directly into a grown woman, tall, leggy, and red-headed. The Visser's face blanched. "Why don't you let my friends go?" I suggested. "Remember well what happened last time. If it weren't for the Crayak's interference..."

The Visser released the gun and let it clatter to the white tiled floor. "Please, Temptress," he began. "Don't--"

"Don't what?" I asked, glowering at him. "Don't kill you? Why shouldn't I, Esplin? Tell me why not." My fingers danced across his bearded face. Sparks splayed across his skin, burning him, be he didn't dare move away.

"Please," he said again, his voice catching as he struggled with tears of fright and pain. At the same time, his body was reacting as a normal human male's would when he was almost chest-to-chest with a beautiful woman.

"Please, what?" I taunted. "You are displeasing me, Esplin. I warned you many times before. You ignored me." I cupped his face in one hand and examined him, taking my sweet time. "You know, you've been a holy terror to these poor fighters. They're my friends, dearest, and I do not appreciate your trying to kill my friends."

"Temptress, please," he choked out again. "Please, spare me."

I released him, backed up, and began morphing again, very slowly. As I did, I said conversationally, "I'm very fond of these young ones. Perhaps I should maim you severely," I reflected. "Or simply torture you." I offered a laviscious smile. "Human men are very fun to torture. That incident in the strip-club you're so fond of remembering could be recreated, dearest. Only, perhaps you might not enjoy the taste of the stripper's blood quite so much."

He blanched.

"Or maybe," I continued, "I could take one of your testicles and replace it with a small marble, preferably one that is charged with electricity. It would bring pain to you whenever you sit down, lie down, stand up, breathe, and so on, and I could rig it to follow you to whatever body or morph you inhabit." I winked at him. "Or maybe I should do to you what you did to the aforementioned stripper."

He screamed. I laughed. My morph was finished. I had turned into a tall young woman with white hair, pink eyes, and fangs. As I approached him, the creature's bloodust surged, brightening the eyes to scarlet.

My voice was pitched deeper than before as I pulled him to my chest and leaned down to bite into his neck. My teeth just barely grazed his neck and he became limp. I dropped the Visser and put my hands on my hips. At last, I touched one finger to his forehead and said matter-of-factly, "You're a fool to think I'm that cruel. Even you would receive a quick death."

I turned back to the Animorphs. The only one who wasn't frozen with panic was Ax. "Shall we return to the scoop?"

* * *

I was lying on a tree branch outside the scoop when they arrived, my arms crossed behind my head, and my right leg dangling. They entered the clearing silently, but I knew they were there, so I rolled off the branch and asked Aximili, "Have you told them yet?"

He began demorphing and said softly, -No, True One. You gave me your word, and the word of the True Ones can be trusted.-

I sat down on the grass and rested my chin on my knees as the humans watched me warily. "You only have five more minutes. If you don't demorph, you'll be _nothlits._"

-Will you attack?- Jake demanded.

I cocked my head. "I haven't done so so far, so I'm pretty sure it's safe to assume that I'm not going to attack. I promise. Besides," I said wryly, "It would not do to piss off the Ellimist. He would be very upset if I hurt his precious humans. And truthfully, I can see why."

Wordlessly, they all demorphed. Tobias quickly morphed to human. I rose. "I'm not technically human."

Jake narrowed his eyes. "I kind of guessed that, you know."

"I'm a True One," I said softly, a little ashamed. "I didn't want to trick you. I came here searching for the human freedom fighters. I didn't know you were so young! I was here to offer you new morphs in exchange for being allowed to take one of you home for a few of your days. But you've just barely left behind childhood a measly few years ago," I mourned. "Even Aximili is only an adolescent. I can't take someone so new to the world away like that, even only for a few days."

"A True One?" Rachel asked sharply.

I shrugged helplessly. "Aximili is better equipped to explain."

Ax's expressive face was tight and tense. -You overestimate me, my lady.-

"Go on, Ax," Cassie urged.

His eyes, all four of them, slid shut. -Andalites have many legends,- he began. -One concerns child-creatures, who reach mid-adolescence in mere days after their birth, but spend thousands of triillions of years growing and developing afterwards. Their proper name is the Naan, but we Andalites put such great stock in their reliability and benevolence that we affectionately call them the True Ones.- He opened his eyes and looked around. -True Ones are terribly curious creatures, not terribly disposed toward minding their own business, but for some reason, they disappeared a thousand years ago.- He stopped.

"There's more," I said flatly. "Finish."

He drew in a breath. "True Ones are powerful beyond belief at birth, but they grow in power, doubling their capacity daily."

"What are we?" I challenged.

-Toward the last five million years of their life, True Ones stop gaining power and start losing it gradually.- Hesitantly, he added, -There is usually only one who is dying Naan at a time. As soon as he or she is gone, a new one commences his or her last cycle. And as soon as the last cycle begins, they are new, different creatures, not worthy of the Andalites' trust and faith.-

"What are we?" I repeated.

-Child Ellimists,- he said reluctantly. -The Naan are young Ellimists. The only reason the current Ellimist can keep Crayak at bay is because Crayak is weak, and the children are there to keep him from gaining power.-

I locked eyes with not Jake, but Marco, and promised, "I give you my word of honor that I will die before I allow the Yeerks to capture you."

Marco was trembling, with fury rather that fear, but he was not the one who answered.

Jake said darkly, "It's too late."

I held Marco's eyes. "I know. But I will not let it happen again. To _any _of you."

Before Jake could continue, Marco said abruptly, "You lied to me."

"Yes."

"Who were you going to take?"

I smiled thinly. "I was going to ask you and Rachel to decide between yourselves."

He nodded gravely. "Why?"

I knew he wasn't asking why I had chosen them. "Because I was bored. I had been tussling with the Yeerks for a while, and they seemed annoyed by you, so simply decided to help you eliminate the threat. I didn't realize until I arrived, until I met you, how real the threat was. I also learned why I have to let you fight alone."

Marco flinched. "Why?"

"You're stuck in-between, Marco. Between childhood and maturity, between human and alien, between jester and knight, between good and evil. You have to choose before I can help you. You have the right idea, but now you have to act on it."

I sighed and sank back to the ground, burying my face in my hands. "Damn it, one of you is going to die, and I'm capable of saving you. Don't you think I want to do it, Marco? But if I stick my nose in here and let you win, you're all going to die. You'll die, and so will the Andalites, humans, Chee, and Yeerks. Four sentient species weighed against one life. One life will be lost and one sanity will be lost. One will break all ties to the Animorphs out of a sense of deep depression. One relationship will be shattered irrevocably. Another couple will be separated because the one child will die." I looked up and shrilled, "Do you think I want that, Marco?"

Marco's face was pale. He was afraid. He was very afraid.


End file.
